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Pao Yue-kong Library, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong http://www.lib.polyu.edu.hk LINGUISTIC DIMENSIONS OF INTERACTIVITY IN COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF CORPORATE POSTS ON TWITTER AND WEIBO LI CHAOYUAN Ph.D The Hong Kong Polytechnic University 2017 The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies Linguistic Dimensions of Interactivity in Computer-mediated Communication: A Comparative Study of Corporate Posts on Twitter and Weibo LI Chaoyuan A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy September 2016 CERTIFICATION OF ORIGINALITY I hereby declare that this thesis is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it reproduces no material previously published or written, nor material that has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma, except where due acknowledgement has been made in the text. ___ _ (Signed) ____ LI Chaoyuan___ (Name of student) Abstract This study makes a linguistic contribution to the notion of interactivity in computer-mediated communication and the concern of building dialogic relationships in external corporation communication. As a key characteristic that distinguishes social media from traditional media, interactivity in computer-mediated communication has been primarily studied from technological and reception perspectives, with very few communicative and linguistic considerations. Positing that interactivity is also a textual characteristic of corporate or organizational discourse in social media, this study extends the line of research on text-based interactivity by revisiting and incorporating concepts from interactional linguistics. Specifically, text-based interactivity is conceptualized as a tripartite construct which involves the following aspects or means of realization: 1) interactive linguistic features; 2) relational speech acts; and 3) topical intertextuality. Interactive linguistic features refer to the linguistic forms that emulate the “conversation ideal”, including (intimate) address forms, personal pronouns, and discourse particles, through which corporations speak to their social media followers with a conversational human voice. Relational speech acts are the specific types of speech acts that aim to fulfill interpersonal functions of the utterances such as sharing and expressing emotions rather than primarily transactional and one-way information disseminating purposes. Topical intertextuality is indicative of the diversity and scope of prior texts related to certain topics that corporations assume as shared by their followers and incorporate in their own social media pages with various means of quoting. Such prior texts range from specific credited posts published by other users to the broader socio-cultural texts such as festivals, theme days, major events in the world, or viral memes on the Web. Data of the study consists of posts published by the top 10 global brands (Interbrand 2015) on their Twitter (the leading English microblogging site) and Weibo (the leading Chinese microblogging site) pages over a three-month period. Findings show both similar and differential patterns in the global brands’ means of building interactivity across the two social media platforms. First, the corporations employed a similar array of interactive linguistic features on the two social media platforms, though frequency of occurrence differed. While personal pronouns were the major means of constructing a conversational human voice on Twitter, corporate Weibo exhibited a high level of creativity in utilizing general address forms in Chinese social media and initiating a host of brand-specific address forms for self-appellation and for addressing brand followers as well as a higher frequency of discourse particles. Second, the study observed that there were more speech acts devoted to engaging stakeholders than to disclosing corporate information and promoting corporate accomplishments, which suggests that social media outlets such as Twitter and Weibo have become more of a prevalent tool and an interactive space for corporations to build solidarity and interaction with their followers. With regard to specific relational speech acts across the two platforms, while there were more sharing and expressing acts on Twitter than on Weibo (i.e. corporate users are more likely to share non-advertising content and express emotions or attitudes towards people and events), there were more greeting and directing acts on Weibo than on Twitter. Finally, in terms of topical intertextuality, Twitter was the more active platform of the two that witnessed more retweeting posts originally composed by external authors such as customers, business partners, and media outlet; Twitter also hosted more interactive hashtagging practices by employing a greater number and variety of external hashtag topics that were of general public interest than internal ones that concern the corporations or their immediate communities only; in terms of utilizing sociocultural text such as the Olympic Games, corporations on their Twitter pages again showed more intertextual efforts to appropriate various discourse resources to engage and interact with their followers. It is also noteworthy that intertextual practices of the corporations demonstrate both their global and local identities, highlighting the interface and intersection of global and local discourses or discourse resources activated by the international sports event. Variations were also observed between technology brands and food & beverage brands. In interpreting the similarities and differences, established cultural dimensions were found to play a less important role compared with the trend of an emerging global virtual culture on the one hand and unique communicative practices on respective platforms on the other. Keywords: interactivity; computer-mediated communication; brand posts; dialogic corporate communication Publications arising from the thesis Journal Articles: Wu, D. D., & Li, C. (2016). Sociolinguistic studies of new media [新媒体社会语言 学研究: 回顾与展望]. Contemporary Linguistics [当代语言学], 18(4): 514-531. Wu, D. D., & Li, C. (2016). Sociolinguistic approaches for intercultural new media studies. Intercultural Communication Studies, 25(2): 14-31. Li, C., & Wu, D. D. (2016). An analysis of relational acts in corporate social media discourse [跨国公司社交媒体话语中的关系言语行为分析]. China ESP Research [中国 ESP 研究], 8 (2): 30-40. Conference Proceedings: Li, C. (2014). Evolution of corporate visual identity: The case of Chinese heritage brands. Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication (pp. 188-196). New York: CCI at Baruch College, CUNY. Li, C., & Wu, D. D. (2017). Facework on social media: The case of corporate Weibo pages [新媒体话语中的面子策略——以企业微博为例]. In Ran, Y. & Zhang, Y. [冉 永平、张艺琼] (Eds.), Applied Linguistic Research Vol. 2 (Proceedings of the 3rd GDUFS Forum of Applied Linguistics 2014) [应用语言学研究第二辑] (pp. 93-104). Beijing: Higher Education Press [北京：高等教育出版社]. Wu, D. D., & Li, C. (2017). Emotional branding on social media: A cross-cultural discourse analysis of global brands on Twitter and Weibo. In Curtis, A. & Sussex, R. (Eds.), Intercultural Communication in Asia: Education, Language and Values (Proceedings of the Macao International Forum 2015). Springer. Acknowledgements First and foremost, my heartfelt gratitude goes to my chief supervisor Dr. Doreen Dongying Wu, whose expertise, professionalism, and the pursuit of perfection serve as a role model for my life. This dissertation would not have been made possible without her guidance. Her repeated emphasis on the importance of conceptualization and operationalization of a research problem will remain a valuable academic asset for me in the years to come. I feel particularly blessed to have a female professor; Doreen’s grace and warmth has made the isolating experience of writing the dissertation so much more pleasant. I am truly grateful to other members (besides chief supervisor) of the board of examiners (BoEs), with Dr. Li Dechao as BoE chair and Prof. Daniel Z. Kádár and Prof. Ran Yongping as external examiners, who reviewed my dissertation, chaired my oral defense, and provided invaluable feedback for its improvement. It was also a great privilege to have Prof. Michael L. Kent among a small audience of my rehearsal of the viva presentation. I was greatly inspired and encouraged by their interest in the topic, critical comments, and warm-hearted